Our position is: 38:44.722N 76:16.178W

There seemed to be a bit more wind the next morning so we took down the sunshade and even contemplated the cruising chute. However the Chesapeake is nothing if not deceiving and as we rounded the headland to go South the wind was from a completely different direction, shortly dying away as we negotiated the shallow bits of Poplar Island Narrows and prepared to enter Knapps Narrows. There had been much debate on the radio as to the anticipated depths and several boats drawing less than us elected to go the long way round Black Walnut Point. As it was low water, we entered the approach channel with some trepidation, but Joe with the local knowledge was confident and we never saw less than 0.4m under the keel. The pilot book claimed that the restoration project on Poplar Island (rebuilding the island using dredged material supported by what we would call stone revetting and the Americans call rip-rap) was reducing the silting in the area and this may be the case. Joe was more concerned about whether his tax-payers dollars were providing value for money! We had a short wait for the bascule bridge in the middle of the narrows to open, as they were experiencing some problems, and their radio conversation during the opening made me wonder if it would fall down on top of us, but we passed under uneventfully and motored the short distance across to Broad Creek and Baby Owl Cove.

There was no sign of Monty and Susan on Scandia, our rafting partners for that night’s event – “dinner with a stranger” – so we dropped our own anchor and waited for them. Ted and Joe started preparing our dinghy for the evening’s other activity – the Windscoop regatta, where rubber dinghies were transformed into sailing vessels with wind scoops and whatever means were available to support them. Some people were swimming off their boats, but jelly fish had been sighted and one person reported being stung, so this made it less attractive. Apparently jelly fish are commonly sighted in the Chesapeake later in the year and nobody swims then, other than in a net enclosure supported by an inflatable ring to protect them. It was felt that they had arrived much earlier than normal this year.

The Windscoop regatta (like so much of the sailing during the week) was hampered by light winds so permission was given for the oars intended as rudders to be available for sculling. This gave the Brits (especially Team Moorglade) an advantage as it appeared Americans never learn to scull. The first Americans home were our raft partners Monty and Susan in third place. 2 of the Selene crew (a charter boat of Brits from North Devon) were second, powered by an umbrella as well as their windscoop and scull and Ted and Joe led the fleet home triumphantly, breaking out the Union Flag at the finish.

After this it was over to Scandia for Ted (Joe was dining with different strangers on the boat being used as the race committee boat) and memories of the Caribbean with Dark and Stormys all round with some wonderful shrimps, followed by buffalo steaks cooked on the rail mounted barbecue (or grill as it is referred to out here)

Bridge opening in Knapps Narrows                                                                            Sailing skipjack - the dinghy is for pushing as they have no engine

preparing for the windscoop regatta                                                                       but a tow needed to get to the start line

supplementing the windscoop                                                                                and across the start line victorious

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